We’re now on the other side of Winter Storm Fern, which affected millions of Americans from down in New Mexico to up through New England. When we talked about getting ready for it last week, it sounded like everyone was hunkering down and preparing for the worst. From what I’ve seen in news reports, it sounds like Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee took the brunt of the ice “bad” stuff. I saw one video of “thunderice” in Texas. It looked intense.
Now that the dust (snow?) has settled, reports and assessments about Fern’s aftermath are being released. Ahead of the storm, many meteorologists were warning that historic levels of ice and snow could leave millions without power or water for days or even weeks. At its peak on Sunday, over one million were without power. As of Monday afternoon, that total was 875,000.
Hundreds of thousands of people were without power this weekend as a major winter storm moved across much of the United States — canceling flights, scrambling plans and coating states in ice and snow as local officials worked to keep residents safe and warm.
Approximately 875,000 customers were dealing with outages from Texas to West Virginia as Winter Storm Fern has churned across the nation in recent days, moving from the West to the Northeast, according to PowerOutage.us.
With snow and ice still hitting the East Coast, precipitation is expected to continue into Monday, Jan. 26, in some parts of the Northeast, according to ABC News.
Already, more than 4 inches of snow had fallen in Arkansas, Kansas, Maryland, Oklahoma, Virginia and elsewhere, with freezing rain hitting parts of the South — Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas and more.
NBC News reported that weather alerts stretched over 37 states and 190 million people. At least 10,000 flights had been canceled as well, according to the Associated Press.
Low temperatures will persist for many long after the weekend, the National Weather Service warned.
“Extremely cold temperatures will expand across the eastern 2/3 of the country this weekend, with very cold weather continuing through much of next week,” the agency posted on X on Saturday, Jan. 24. “Take precautions to prepare yourself and your pets for this life-threatening cold!”
I hope utilities crews can get power restored to those areas quickly, especially because it’s going to be so cold for the next few days. I know they’re all working around the clock, though, and I’m grateful for their hard work. There’s also another winter storm that could potentially hit the East Coast and the Gulf Coast this upcoming weekend, too. Hopefully, that one fizzles out. My family and I fully expected to lose power. We prepped ahead of time, including some of y’alls suggestions that we didn’t think to do. Thankfully, we never did. The predicted freezing rain quickly turned to sleet, so we had a layer of ice with a thin layer of snow on top of it which made for some very fun sleigh riding on Sunday. I hope everyone fared just as well and spent the weekend reading books and making bread while staying warm.
Oh, and a quick follow up on America’s least favorite winter weather groundhog. Ted Cruz flew back to Texas from California, but still made an ass out of himself by doing that other thing he does best: snidely Tweeting misinformation. On Sunday, he reposted a picture of Kentucky governor Andy Beshear in Europe with the “🤔” emoji. Fact-checking is hard for Republicans, and if Teddy had just done a quick search, he would have learned that Beshear’s picture was a week old and that he’d done a press conference from Kentucky that morning. What a tool. The self-owning never gets old.
Photos credit: IMAGO/Vanessa Carvalho/Avalon, Polesie Toys on Unsplash and via Instagram
I hope those without power have it back soon and for now are able in some way to keep themselves warm but there will be those who can’t. I was fully prepared her in NC and we were so fortunate to not have lost power. We are however going to have another weekend of storm depending on where the low pressure lands it could be a mix of snow and ice or just snow and of course will be very cold. Fun times this winter!!
Luckily, my family and I are still connected here in New England. But I am worried about the folks without electricity because they his government is ass and the state levels may need help from them.
Ted Cruz has to be participating in election fraud to keep winning right? Because I just don’t want to believe that his constituents are so stupid and gluttons for punishment. An arrogant, stupid & ugly man.
We didn’t lose power, thankfully, but I was expecting to. I wasn’t really prepared for it, though, so hallelujah, I guess.
We were incredibly lucky in my part of the state. The power has not even flickered here. I have never seen such a wildly variable forecast. Middle TN was hit very, very hard with ICE. Many in Nashville are without power in extremely cold weather. Ted Cruz is a dolt and the Kentucky governor (and everyone smeared by the dumb f#ck magats) should sue because some cultists will always blindly believe their false idols and do not have the common sense to fact check. Smears like that bring out the crazies and put people’s safety at risk.
Glad you’re OK and warm. I have one kid in Knoxville and another in Chattanooga, so I was worried, but they told me to stop checking in already.
We live in the southern part of NC and didn’t lose power. The worse weather stayed right above us. We had some Ice rain and of course the cold temperatures but that was it. We have a Generac and let the neighbors know that they can come and hang out in our house if the power goes out. We just have a party. 🙂
I feel so sorry for the all the people that are without power. Especially the ones that are housebound, the elderly and small children that have no options to go to warmer accommodations. I hope that the potential new winter storm that could happen this weekend fizzles out. Another storm will be even more devastating.
We are in Austin and luckily didn’t lose power, but we have had record cold temps and there is still ice everywhere. School is canceled again today. We’ve been busy during the storm. Our local animal shelters asked for volunteers to foster pets because they were at risk. We went and came home with a darling Great Pyrenees! Biggest dog I’ve ever lived with. He needs and deserves a home with room for him to roam, and I think we have found one for him. I wish we could keep him, but he’s a little too much for two 70 year olds! I’m proud of my fellow citizens because reports are that volunteer fosters stood in line waiting for a pet and that the shelters were emptied.
Jersey Shore here, we had snow followed by freezing rain accompanied by gale force winds, so there was no way to periodically remove the snow during the storm without it blowing right back into place. It’s taking back hoes and pickaxes to clear driveways and walkways. Then the sun comes out, melts some of it, which then freezes into a deeper layer of ice. The roadways are decently clear, but it’s nearly impossible to walk out of your house without slipping and breaking your hip. I have plenty of food and water and still have power (thank God) but I will not be seeing any mail or deliveries until I can fashion a blowtorch to clear my front walkway which is one giant snow drift topped with 3″ of ice!
We were so, so lucky in Houston. The rain came through Saturday night right before the temperature dropped, so ice accumulation was minimal and we didn’t have the broken trees and power lines that caused so much damage and power outage in 2021. I still have PTSD from that storm. We also got a whole-home generator after Hurricane Beryl knocked out power to our area for a week two years ago, which is a huge relief. We also let friends/neighbors know they were welcome if power went out. I’m glad nobody had to take us up on that, though!
To answer the question about Rafael and election fraud, I wouldn’t doubt it because he is an awful, smug, greasy charisma vacuum (my favorite descriptor is Al Franken calling him a “fish microwaver”) but also, don’t underestimate the tendency of my state to consistently vote against common sense, progress, or their own interests. Ugh.